Interesting times indeed. I got caught up in politics. Even abroad it was difficult to miss the troubles in Hungary: controversial new laws enacted, new constitution, economic crises, heavy critique from the US and the EU, mass protests in Budapest.
It all started a year ago, when I was invited to speak at a rally against the than newly adopted media law which coupled a heavily centralized, and politically charged media authority with unprecedented power of this authority over all kinds of media.
The organizer was a Facebook group called One Million for the Press Freedom in Hungary. By now a 100.000 strong group, it has quickly broadened its scope to protect all kinds of freedom rights, and mutated into a media outlet besides organizing mass protests on March 15th and October 23rd.
I am now one of the spokespersons of the group. I was elected to be amongst the informal leaders of the 40-something people who are actively involved in the organization. I am one of the editors of the Facebook page which organizes debates, pushes underreported news, disseminates information on the civil society protests to hundreds of thousands 2-3 times every day.
I wish I could go back to the library and work on my new project, but these are desperate times, and I realized my responsibility in the future of my country which has been officially been ceased to be a Republic.
What are we doing now?
